Alex Cora becomes just fourth Red Sox manager to reach 500 career wins
BOSTON -- Alex Cora hit a career milestone on Monday night, notching his 500th career win as manager of the Boston Red Sox. Cora is just the fourth manager in Red Sox franchise history to hit that mark.
Cora hit the milestone thanks to Boston's 9-5 road win over Kansas City, pulling the Red Sox to within 1.5 games of the Royals in the race for the American League's final Wild Card spot. He sits behind only Mike "Pinky" Higgins (560 wins), Terry Francona (744), and Joe Cronin (1,071) on Boston's all-time wins list.
Cora reached the 500-win mark in 921 games, and is the second-fastest Boston skipper to reach that mark behind the 862 games that Francona needed. Cronin needed 930 games to reach 500 wins.
Cora praised his players after the milestone victory.
The Red Sox hired Cora in 2018 after he spent two seasons as a bench coach for the Houston Astros. Boston won a World Series in his first season on the bench, as the Red Sox won a franchise record 108 games during the regular season. The team missed the playoffs in 2019 though, and Cora and the Red Sox mutually parted ways for the 2020 season after MLB's investigation into the 2017 Astros sign-stealing controversy.
But Cora was back on the Boston bench in 2021, and he led the Sox back to the playoffs after a 92-70 season. The team made a run to the ALCS before falling to the Astros in six games.
The Red Sox haven't been in the postseason since that run, with back-to-back 78-84 seasons. But despite a slew of injuries to the pitching staff, Cora has his team at 60-51 and right in the playoff race this season.
Cora, 48, recently signed a three-year extension with Boston, which will give him a chance to continue to climb up Boston's career wins list.
